I Need You Now
by Radiorox
Summary: Short story, takes place during "Back In Saddle" after Mac asks Harm for help with the Imes cases.
1. Chapter 1

So, I was driving home and the song from Lady Antebellum "I Need You Now" was playing. I wasn't intending to write anything but, I got home and started putting words down. Most of this is done, and it will be very short with brief chapters - 3 chapters, maybe 4.

This happens a few hours after Mac leaves Harm's place during "Back In The Saddle" I was always curious if they would talk about anything had Catherine Gayle not shown up. This first chapter is a doozy but, stick it through. ;) Mistakes are mine and JAG is not mine... so dere you go. ;)

Enjoy or not... For those reading Final Destination, I am working on posting soonish trying to get the love scene just right. ;)

Chapter 1

Mac lay back into her sofa and pulled him with her. Their bodies barely losing contact as the ministrations that began with a kiss goodnight became something more. She welcomed the weight of his body and the possessive way his hands gripped onto her hips when he spread her legs to lay between them.

His kisses were sloppy, rough and it felt as if he didn't know what to do until she placed her hands on either sides of his face and kissed him soundly. He was a little too eager, she could feel his desire pressing against her. ' _Harm.'_ She almost called out his name and held it back on a strangled groan.

Only the man who was pressing her down onto the cushions of her sofa wasn't Harm.

Mac's heart shattered a little at the notion and yet she gave into another man in order to find comfort as she grieved for a lover that was never hers.

It wasn't unfamiliar, she'd done something similar with Mic and settled for some sort of happiness. She couldn't bare the alternative and the constant loneliness that gripped her. "Sarah, I want you."

Clayton Webb's voice snapped her out of the reverie long enough for her to realize he'd begun unbuttoning the blouse she wore. They hadn't been intimate, not yet and that night after visiting Harm in order to have him help with the Imes debacle, Mac wondered what she was waiting for. She'd tried to talk to him and hoped he would disclose the anger he felt towards her. As usual he'd managed to skirt around the conversation and when she considered a different tactic, there had been a knock on his door.

Catherine Gayle was on the other side. Despite Harm's past assurance that nothing had transpired between he and the pretty blond, the woman seemed far too eager to enter his apartment. Mac took her queue then and left but, not before calling Clay and asking him to come to her.

If his ignoring her 17 messages didn't drive the point home, seeing another woman with Harm did - they were over. They were over and she would move on, this time for good. A tear slid down her cheek as she mourned for a love that was never hers to have and the best friend that was no longer in her life. Angrily, she brushed the tear away before claiming Clay's lips with her own. "I need you, Clay." She said breathlessly, knowing it was a lie.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter - 2

Across town, Harm sat on his sofa eyes glancing at his door as he nursed a glass of whiskey. It was a quarter past one am and he just couldn't unwind enough to sleep. The evening had been interesting. He'd been visited by two beautiful women and neither had spent the night.

The visit from Catherine Gayle had been an odd one and she'd come for advice. She was pregnant. Although he had not regretted using Catherine to find Mac, the method was certainly unorthodox and found him receiving interest from a woman he did not want. She'd claimed that Mac had given her the "get away from my man" look and Harm scoffed at the thought. He and Mac would never work, she'd made that abundantly clear at the taxi stand in Paraguay - he wasn't the one for her. He wouldn't fight for her.

Harm had taken her comment at face value and given up. What was the point of fighting for her anyway? If the woman had any real feelings for him she wouldn't run off with the first man that showed interest. For the moment, he couldn't bare the thought of having another woman in his life. What for? So he could pretend to care and be the good boyfriend while he was having dreams about Mac? "Damnit."

Harm had made plenty of mistakes, past relationships with coworkers hadn't ended well and he stubbornly refused to go down that road with Mac. He felt he would lose her and chose to play the friend card.

It always came back to her and had since they met. He'd been the fool once, practically throwing her into the arms of another when all he had to do was tell her what he felt. Then, one day, it all clicked and he'd kissed her desperately at the most inappropriate of times.

He'd been ready to put it all on the line after his plane had crashed into the ocean two years prior. He knew what he wanted but, every roadblock seemed to be thrown at them.

Harm finished off another whiskey and slammed the glass onto the coffee table. This introspection was getting him nowhere. "Why can't I stop thinking about her?" He said out loud to an empty apartment.

To make matters worse, his mind kept bringing back images of Mac walking through his door wearing that beige raincoat that was tightly cinched at her waist. Was she wearing anything under it? If his conversation with her had been different, would said raincoat lay on the floor mixed in a pool of their clothing? Would he be making love to her rather than sitting alone on his sofa playing sad songs on his guitar?

For some inexplicable reason he'd brought down a shoe box full of pictures from his time at JAG. He'd separated them into two piles one of which were images of him and Mac. Studying each photo the images seemed to come to life as his memories told the stories. Control was starting to slip and he welcomed it.

One drink turned to two and then three until the bottle of whiskey was drained of its contents. He sat in the dark then, eyes on the door and imagining Mac walking through it and rescuing him from the heartache that consumed him. One of his hands gripped his portable phone tightly as he wrestled with the want to call her.

Harm wondered if he was ever on her mind. He figured he was at some point before the disaster named Paraguay put a permanent wedge between them. Despite himself, he needed to hear her voice and have that stupid conversation they kept tabling.

"I shouldn't call." He said but with the liquor rippling through his veins rational control ceased to exist and his fingers walked over the familiar digits.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Sarah..." Clay's voice called out between kisses to her mouth and neck. But, Mac wasn't thinking about him or the claim he was trying to lay on her body. She was thinking about Harm.

It was dumb luck when her phone rang stopping her from making the biggest mistake of her life. As she arched up to reach the phone on side table behind her, Clay pushed her hand away. "Ignore it."

"I can't." She said, instinctively knowing who would he on the other line. Something was wrong, she felt it in her gut, that innate need to go to him. "Hello?"

' _Mac.'_ Harm's voice said on the other line and even from the way he said her name, she could sense the desperation. ' _I need you now.'_

There was something in his voice that held a promise she was looking for. It was eerily familiar from a few years prior when he'd asked her to come to him. "I'm coming." She said despite that insecure feeling in the pit of her stomach.

With a start, she pushed Clayton Webb off of her and went straight to the rack by the door buttoning her blouse. She grabbed her raincoat and tied it around her waist. Clay just watched her, confused as to how things were suddenly out of his control. "You're going to _him_ aren't you?"

"Yes." She didn't bother denying it. "This wasn't going to work out, Clay." Mac admitted out loud what her heart had been trying to tell her, the very thing she was trying to ignore. She suddenly felt ashamed at how far she was going to allow this relationship with Webb to go. Emotionally she was weak and always would be. There was one thing she was sure, a constant that she lived in secret with. "I'm in love with him and I always will be."

Clay stood and made his way towards her. "He's going to fail you and when he does, I'll be here to pick up the pieces, Sarah."

And that's where he was wrong, "Harm will never fail me. I'm the one that failed him." She said and held Clay at arms length when he made to reach her. "I mean it Clay, this is over."

"Give my regards to Rabb." He said on a shrug before opening her door and stepping out of her life.

The drive to Harm's had been nearly impossible with the amount of rain pounding the city. She'd made it though and found herself standing outside of his apartment, her heart beating rough staccato as she pressed her palm against the door. Why the hell did she tell him that they'd never work out?

She didn't have to knock as a minute later Harm threw the door open. He took her in his arms, pressing her body into his before taking her mouth in a deep, breathtaking kiss.

Mac tasted the whiskey on his lips and yet she gave into him, hands gripping onto his shoulders as Harm closed the door and pinned her up against it. Her arms wrapped around him holding him tightly as his kisses wreaked havoc on her senses.

His fingers worked the cinch of her raincoat which he parted to find a black silk blouse beneath. "I wondered what you wore under that." He said huskily and rested his forehead against hers.

Mac couldn't help but laugh at the mischievous glint in his eyes. "Sorry to destroy your fantasies."

At the mention of the word, he backed away and cocked his head to study her. "This isn't a fantasy, is it?" The whiskey was making his head swim and his vision was blurring slightly.

"No, I'm real." To reassure him, Mac hooked two fingers on his belt and pulled him to her. She kissed him then only to have him pull away.

"Mac, I'm a little drunk." He admitted with his head hanging low in shame. Knowing about her past addiction and life with an alcoholic father, the last thing he wanted was to compound the situation.

"I noticed." She smirked at him, finding amusement in his current predicament. Alcohol had a way of forcing people to speak the truth and if his foray had been the cause for his current behavior she welcomed it. "Come to bed." She took his hand and dragged him up the steps to his bedroom.


End file.
